Zahra Bibak : Podcasting, video and screencasting
♦Podcasting Podcasting is a term inspired by the Apple Computer Corporation’s iPod—a portable digital audio player that allows users to download music from their computer directly to the device for later listening. The term is no longer specifically related to the iPod but refers to any software and hardware combination that permits automatic downloading of audio files (most commonly in MP3 format) for listening at the user’s convenience. Unlike traditional radio or other Web-based streaming media, podcasts give listeners control over when they hear the recording. Podcasting makes use of the Internet’s Real Simple Syndication (RSS) standard. It differs from broadcasting and Webcasting in the way that content is published and transmitted via the Web. Instead of a central audio stream, podcasting sends audio content directly to an iPod or other MP3 player. Who can use it? Podcasting can involve practically anyone with an Internet connection. With its roots in the blogging world, part of the appeal of podcasting is the ease with which audio content can be created, distributed, and downloaded from the Web. Professional broadcasters and syndicated radio shows are starting to make their content available as podcasts. Amateurs are flocking to podcasting, sharing their content and opinions. Campuses are starting to make content available as podcasts as well. How does it work? ''' Podcasting is a unique innovation in content publishing based in large part on its inherent simplicity and ease of use. Users simply connect their portable audio devices to their computer, log on to a podcasting subscription service, and subscribe to that site’s feeds. Audio content is then “pushed” from the original source directly and automatically to the user’s iPod or MP3 player. All of the tools needed to create, modify, and distribute podcasts are within reach of anyone with a reasonably well-configured laptop. The desire to improve the quality of podcasts has resulted in rich Web-based resources outlining principles of sound, equipment recommendations, and shared experiences. Podcasting demonstrates the power of audio over text (listening as opposed to reading), allowing podcast users to listen and learn while they walk, jog, ride the bus, or are otherwise away from their computer screen. Perhaps most significantly, podcast technology empowers users to publish audio content directly and seamlessly onto the Web. '''Why is it significant? Podcasting allows education to become more portable than ever before. Podcasting cannot replace the classroom, but it provides educators one more way to meet today’s students where they “live”—on the Internet and on audio players. Barriers to adoption and costs are minimal. The tools to implement podcasts are simple and affordable. Podcasting is predicted to soon become a mainstream application, much like video-ondemand recorders (such as TiVo). Podcast enthusiasts see no limit to the potential uses of this technology, particularly in education, and the number of podcast aggregators (sites that collect, categorize, and then make available podcasts for subscribers) is growing. It is possible that specialized higher education–based aggregators will emerge, offering students access to missed lectures, instructions for laboratory experiments, and so forth. Interlacing podcasts with video applications— listening to a podcast while viewing related material on the Web—is another area of experimentation in education. Podcasting is evolving at a rapid rate. New features—categorizing, navigating, and indexing—are being demanded by users. Consequently, designers and producers of podcasts are seeking new ways to add layers of richness to simple audio files—creating audio experiences that are both entertaining and instructive. What are the implications for teaching and learning? Podcasting allows students to use their technology-based entertainment systems (iPods, MP3 players) for educational experiences. Because students are already familiar with the underlying technology, podcasting broadens educational options in a nonthreatening and easily accessible manner. For example, podcasting allows lectures or other course content to be made available to students if they miss class. Beyond missed lectures, podcasting can provide access to experts through interviews. Podcasting is not limited to content delivered to the student, however; students can create their own podcasts—as a record of activities, a way to collect notes, or a reflection on what they have learned. ' ' ♦SCREENCASTING A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output. In 2004, columnist John Udell invited readers of his blog to propose names for the emerging genre. Udell selected the term "screencast", which was proposed by both Joseph McDonald and Deeje Cooley. The terms "screencast" and Screencam are often used interchangeably, due to the market influence of ScreenCam as a screencasting product of early 1990s. ScreenCam, however, is a federal trademark in the United States whereas screencast is not trademarked and has established use in publications as part of Internet and Computing vernacular. Screencasts can help demonstrate and teach the use of software features. Creating a screencast helps software developers show off their work. Educators may also use screencasts as another means of integrating technology into the curriculum. Students can record video and audio as they demonstrate the proper procedure to solve a problem on an interactive whiteboard. Screencasts are useful tools for ordinary software users as well: They help filing report bugs in which the screencasts take the place of potentially unclear written explanations; they help showing others how a given task is accomplished in a specific software environment. Organizers of seminars may choose to routinely record complete seminars and make them available to all attendees for future reference and/or sell these recordings to people who cannot afford the fee of the live seminar or do not have the time to attend it. This will generate an additional revenue stream for the organizers and makes the knowledge available to a broader audience. This strategy of recording seminars is already widely used in fields where using a simple video camera or audio recorder is sufficient to make a useful recording of a seminar. Computer-related seminars need high quality and easily readable recordings of screen contents which is usually not achieved by a video camera that records the desktop. An alternative solution for capturing a screencast is the use of a hardware RGB or DV1 Frame grabber card. This approach places the burden of the recording and compression process on a machine separate from the one generating the visual material being captured ♦Video Publishing As the incredible technology is going to continue, every day newer multimedia tools are emerged. The explosion in the last few year of multimedia publishing on the web is very clear. This expansion of the Web into multimedia has come about quickly and is fast evolving, due primarily to the sudden explosion of broadband connectivity and cheap memory on computers. These days, it doesn't take hours to download a feature-length film, a fact that Netflix and Blockbuster are capitalizing on, Similarly, it doesn't take an expensive computer to be able to store and play those files, as hard-drive disk space and RAM have become incredibly cheap compared to what they were just a few years ago. Those two advances have created another change in the way we consume multimedia. Whereas our computers used to play the media file as it streamed through the connection, now it simply downloads it and plays it once completely saved. It's made viewing these types of files more efficient and enjoyable, and it has pushed streaming of content further into the realm of live performance. The great part about these online services is that they're free, number one, and they are unlimited in terms of their use. And, in the case of YouTube, you can even record video right from your computer onto their server. But as with podcasting, there is a certain amount of writing and preparation that goes into great movie making. It's a digital storytelling in its most complex form, and it requires a significant amount of thinking and work to do it well. And, of course, the process is a bit more complex, making it difficult to cover in this small amount of space. There are also online video recording and editing alternatives. ' ' ♦References: 1. www.educause.edu/eli/ Advancing learning through IT innovation 2. Wikipedia 3. "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" by Will Richardson Zahra Bibak